Rebecca Epstein, the executive director of the Center on Gender Justice and Opportunity at Georgetown Law, said charges against victims are common. Epstein co-authored a report in April looking at how survivors of sexual assault and abuse are often criminalized. “Girls who experience sexual abuse are often the ones who are punished for the sexual
The Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality’s Initiative on Gender Justice & Opportunity has partnered with Restorative Empowerment for Youth (REY) to offer and evaluate a pilot online restorative justice program developed for girls of color to support more inclusive, culturally responsive, and connected learning environments in Fall 2020. Download the Case Study: Restorative
Just as the killing of George Floyd and others provided the catalyst to open Americans’ eyes to systemic police violence against the Black community, the arrest and detention of a 15-year-old Michigan girl named Grace for failing to do her homework should be the wake-up call to end the criminalization of Black girls, say Rebecca
Black girls meanwhile, find far less empathy. They are routinely seen as older than they are, and sexualized by society at a young age. A recent study by the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality showed that Black girls as young as 5 years old were perceived by adults to be “less innocent and
As we saw after the R. Kelly documentary, people will lay blame on everyone and everything rather than the responsible party—the perpetrator, the adult that knows better than a child. Victim blaming has a long history but it digs deeper with Black girls, who are held to different standards. A 2017 Georgetown University study found
“There’s a hostility that’s often there. If you are deferential and submissive you get a little better treatment,” said Chapman. “But anytime you question or you demand or you challenge you get treated with an extreme hostility and brutality. I’ve seen it so many times. I’ve experienced it.” The authors of Georgetown’s 2017 study stated that “the
Teachers may misinterpret trauma-related behavior — struggles to focus in class, sleeping in class, being irritable — as being disrespectful. In addition, adults view black girls as less in need of nurture, protection, support and comfort than white girls of the same age, according to research by Jamilia Blake and colleagues from the Georgetown Law
The rate of girls in the juvenile justice system is increasing, according to a 2015 report Vafa coauthored with researchers from the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Ms. Foundation for Women. They found that those girls also experience sexual violence at disproportionate rates. Read the Full Article at Nashville Public Radio
Rebecca Epstein shares her research into how the perception that black girls are more adult-like and less innocent than their white counterparts could increase their chances of ending up in the criminal justice system. National statistics show black girls are suspended more than five times as often as white girls and are 2.7 times more